Finding Friction in London with “My Dad”

Rendered in visceral, expressionistic oil pastels and backed by layered audio fragments, Marcus Armitage‘s BAFTA nominated graduation film “My Dad,” looks, feels and sounds like an edgy and experimental NFB short from the 70’s. That’s a good thing.

Exploring themes of paternal responsibility, tolerance and racism, Armitage created the film using straight ahead hand-drawn animation during his final year at the Royal College of Art in London.

Marcus Armitage: “The film isn’t auto biographical in the sense that it is my dad, but made about my move to London, and experiencing many different cultures in a small place and the friction this causes.

“The greatest challenge was creating a balanced story. It is very easy to make a film that is just attacking someone, but with this I wanted to show that the dad is just a normal parent, however is also passing on his opinions without knowing it.

“It took a lot of editing to find this balance, which was a great thing to do as often with animation you have the film made before you start. This was a much more fluid process.”

Awards:
BAFTA 2015, Nomination for Short Animation
Annecy International 2015, Graduation Cristal
Encounters 2015, UWE New European Talent Award
London International Animation festival 2014, Best British Film
The Smalls Film Festival 2015, Best Animation
Clermont Ferrand 2014, Special Jury Mention